Disclaimer: I don't own Furuba. *sighs*

Note: I doubt that Kyou would ever do this, but it makes for a good story.^_^

Earthquake By: San a.k.a Me Again A Furuba Fan Fiction

Why was he shaking?

Damn Yankee! He thought hard. Damn Yankee! But this time he couldn't convince himself. He was still shaking, but now he couldn't tell; was it him or the earth sliding under his feet?

She had spent the night at the Soumas' to help take care of Tohru. The genki girl had come down with a fever and cough, and the three males together couldn't figure out what to do without Hatori, who was busy with the ever-ill Akito. They were frantic, each in their own ways, until the well-timed Arisa showed up.

Kyou had answered the door, a task usually reserved for Tohru.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Kyou spat. Arisa gave him a glare to equal his own, and was about to speak when a voice came from behind Kyou.

"I called her."

Yuki came up behind the two. He had dark circles under his eyes from lack of sleep, and his shoulders were hunched. He ran a slender hand through his mouse-gray hair and gave a formal smile to Arisa.

"Hello, Uotani-san. Thank you for coming. Will Hana.Will Hanajima be coming also?" Kyou, under other circumstances, would have thought the Rat had shuddered at the psychic girls name, but Yuki looked too tired to blink, let alone worry about something else.

If Arisa had noticed, she said nothing.

"Hana-chan's on a family trip this week, so it's just me. Now!" She gestured with her hand, which held a bag in it. "To the patient!"



Arisa had spent the rest of the day in Tohrus' room. She didn't come down for dinner, even at Shigures persistent requests (he came down muttering about having High-school girls in the house and seeing nothing of them.) Kyou, like most days without Tohru, spent the time on the roof.

Kyou sat in his usual position, holding his arm in front of him. His cat- sharp nails were plucking holes out of the skin on it. He wasn't sure exactly when he had started this habit; sometime the month before, when he had seen Yuki and Tohru. But that was history. They had kissed, he had seen it. What the hell could he do about it?

'I am repulsive.' He had thought afterwards. 'That is why she will never love me like that damn mouse!' he had already hated himself, but now. Tohru would never hurt him on purpose, but he knew what she thought of him. He had heard with those cat-ears of his while she talked to her friends. She loved him "Like a brother! Kyou-kun is such a great friend!"

Now he mouthed the words in disgust as he tried to pull his skin off. He hated his skin, all the layers and forms it took against his will. He knew why she could never love him. He was a monster. Not just some cute fuzzy mouse to hold in your hand, or even just an orange tom. No, he was a monster with red eyes and long, yellow teeth in a deformed face on a deformed, reeking body. His "True" form, they called it. All the anger, all the hatred, all the loneliness.His True form.

He was ripping at the skin beneath the bracelet now. His arm hurt, and he was bleeding, blood under his nails, but he ignored the pain (or was it enjoyed?) and kept peeling it away. Somewhere inside his mind and heart he felt that if he was rid of the skin beneath that hated symbol of his curse, that bracelet that clung to him, kept him in this form.If he could be rid of the skin beneath that, then maybe there would be no need for it.

He was halfway around his wrist when he heard a noise at the roofs edge. For a moment he thought it was Tohru, but instead of brown hair, a blonde head came bobbing over the edge.

"Yo." Uotani greeted him as she sat down. Kyou grunted in response, but otherwise ignored the girl. After a few minutes of silence, he spoke.

"What do you want?!"

Arisa gave her trademark grin.

"I got bored. Tohru's asleep, as is the Prince, and the other one.he creeps me out. Its too late to go home so." She shrugged.

"So go to sleep." He growled.

"Not tired."

"So you decided to annoy me?!?" He was irritated. His hands were scratching at his arm and he didn't feel like talking.

Arisa noticed the movement and made a face.

"Geeze, KyonKyon, what happened to your arm?"

Kyou said nothing. His hands were scratching faster, and there was blood on his nails.

"Shouldn't you be taking care of Tohru?" He started to turn away, when a hand landed on his, stopping its motion. He glared at the girl, only to see an unusual expression on her face.

"Don't change the subject, boy. What happened to your arm?"

Kyou yanked his arm away, angry.

"None of your damn business, ya damn Yankee!"

This time Uotani said nothing. She crawled over to the roof edge and disappeared over it. Kyou grunted.

'At least she knows when to leave.' He thought. Of course, he was wrong.

Arisa came back in a few minutes, box in hand. It was a first aid kit. Wordlessly she sat next to him and grabbed his arm, antiseptic spray stinging the wounds. Kyou scowled, but didn't pull away. He realized that the last thing he wanted was for his arm to get infected.

Arisa started to wrap a bandage around his arm, and frowned when she reached the bracelet. "Take it off." She said. When Kyou only scowled, she started to pull it off, and he yanked his arm away.

"Leave it!" He shouted. "If you cant get around it then let me do it."

Arisa shrugged, her expression unreadable.

"Fine, I'll work around it." She chuckled quietly. "You're a strange one, Carrots."

When she had finished with that, she sat back.

"So tell me Carrots. Why'd ya do that?"

Kyou didn't thank her, only giving her a dirty look.

"Do what?" he didn't know weather she was talking about his arm or the bracelet.

"Your arm, stupid."

"Don't call me stupid, Bitch. I'm not." He growled and added, "What do you care?"

"I don't really. I'm just curious why you would hurt yourself. Oh, I know you did it." she added when she saw the look on his face. " Its too deliberate to be an accident."

"Why should I tell you?" he asked skeptically.

"Tell me or don't. I don't care. Keep on hurting yourself, or maybe someone else, but eventually you'll have to tell someone why." Her expression was unreadable again, and Kyou found himself answering.

"I was angry."

"What else is new?" she asked.

"No, you don't get it! I was. angry at my skin." He gave a sharp laugh, that stung the ears. "But why am I telling you this? I don't want to." And he didn't. But for some reason, it seemed easier to tell Uotani than to keep it inside.

"I'm sick of myself, of what I am. And its all that persons fault!!" he exploded, his fist coming down on the shingles.

"Before she came here I was content with just beating that damn mouse, but now?! Now!." hand, clenched on the roof shingles, slowly relaxed, his orange eyes becoming hidden behind his hair. He sighed.

"Now? Now she's just another person to hurt me. Another thing that rat can beat me with."

"And what are you?"

Kyou looked up, startled.

"What?"

"What are you, Kyou, so that you hate yourself?"

Kyou looked away, wary of telling her. In a few moments he spoke, voice quiet and full of loathing.

"Disgusting."

Now he fell silent, and the two sat there in the quiet night for sometime. Kyou had started pulling at the skin above the bandage unconsciously, his mind somewhere in the torment of memory, when he was jerked from his thoughts by a hand closing on his, pulling it away from his poor abused arm. It didn't let go when it was away from his arm. Kyou looked up to see Arisa staring at him hard. Kyou's face reddened, his heart pounding hard with the physical contact, and he tried to draw his hand from hers. But she didn't let go, and he gave up without much fight. After searching for a place to gaze as she stared, he finally settled with staring back. She was looking for something, scrutinizing gaze intense on his face, and he suddenly thought that she could see all his secrets. Panicking, he yelled "What?!?"

Arisa ignored the outburst, and merely grunted in response, or maybe it was annoyance. Finally, after what felt like an eternity to Kyou, she talked.

"Your disgusting, huh?" She said it, but not unkindly. She still hadn't let go of his hand, keeping from scratching his already abused arm.

"We all hate ourselves in some way, Kyou. No-ones ever truly happy with themselves, and we've all got secrets." She said matter-of-factly.

Kyou panicked again for a moment, wondering if Tohru had told the Yankee his secret. But, no, the girl couldn't break a promise without blowing herself up for it. She hadn't told.

"I'm different." He spat. "I'm not like you. My secrets, they're not like everyone else's."

Why was he telling her this? Tremors were making their way up his body, and Kyou had a feeling that there would be more to come.

"Oh, and what makes you so alone Carrots?" she asked, grinning. Her long blonde hair covered one eye, and she looked like a true Yankee.

Kyou flinched at the word 'alone'. He hated that word, because it was sharp truth. He said nothing for a while, but that damn grin was demanding an answer. Shigure had been right; he was weak under pressure.

"That girl." he didn't need to say who. " I had thought that she.maybe she." He didn't finish. What he had thought was that maybe she could love him, even with his secret. But now. Kyou shook his head. "But no. Yuki beat me again." He said bitterly. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Kyou had stopped talking to Uotani, and was talking more to himself if anything.

"I saw them kissing." Somehow he was still in a state of denial, and the words surprised him. "Out in the garden. What difference does it make now if I beat him? I don't care for the family, and I can't make her love me. Why am I here in the first place? She'll never be mine." The last part came out as a whisper, and in the silence after, Kyou could still hear it echoing in his head.

"How long?"

Kyou's head snapped up to face the girl. He had, for a moment, forgotten she was there.

"How long what?!?" he snapped, agitated by her presence and red-faced because of telling her so much.

"Have you been alone?" there was a curious expression in the girls' eyes, something somewhere between pity and understanding. Kyou looked away, ashamed and disconsolate.

"Since before I was born." He said. And it was True.

Now Arisa spoke, her voice low against the silent night.

"I was alone too, before I met Tohru. Gang life." she shook her head, a grin pulling at the corner of her mouth, one that didn't seem quite right, almost sad. "It was supposed to make you a part of something, a part of a family, but you're not. Then Tohru came along and, well." she shrugged. "I wasn't alone any more. But she doesn't love me in that way either, so maybe I get it a little." She glanced at Kyou.

Kyou snorted in scorn. For a moment he had thought that maybe she had understood, but now he realized that she would never understand, not until she saw what he was. And then it would be too late.

"You can never understand. I must always be alone." ~It's the way things are, the way this curse is. ~ He thought.

Uotanis' hand had left his by then, and Kyou realized too late that he missed the warmth of it against his palm, and closed his fingers into a fist to rid it of the sudden cold. That look was back, her eyes thoughtful and understanding and questioning and skeptic all in one.

Arisa reached up toward his face, making him look at her. Kyous' face was burning, and he wanted to push her away, but there was only the roofs edge and the air beyond for her to fall back on. She was studying him again, that expression never leaving her eyes. Kyou found himself unable to look away as she leaned forward. He tried to move back, but he couldn't find the strength in his body to pull away from this warmth on his face. Then she kissed him.

For a moment, Kyou was lost. He had only kissed a girl once before, when he and Kagura had stolen some sake from the house fridge, and both had been a little tipsy and high on shojo anime.

But Kyou found his way in a moment. Arisa, to his luck, had one hand supporting herself on the roof shingles, the other on his neck, keeping her from hugging him. Kyou, on his part, had run his bandaged hand through her hair and was holding her head in his hands.

Sweet, blissful eternity passed in a minute, and the two pulled apart breathless. Arisa was the first to catch her breath and speak. Kyou was shaking, again, from his whole body, different emotions running through his head, the chief of them Panic. He couldn't seem to talk. Arisa grinned.

"I don't think your disgusting. Actually, you're a pretty good kisser. Are you sure you have too be alone?"

She wouldn't be able to hold him. He could never tell he about his secrets ( ~maybe I wont have to. ~) And he would always hurt a little when he saw Tohru. But somehow, it didn't seem to matter for the moment. He'd figure it out when he got there, he thought, ~like everything else I do. ~

"Damn Yankee." He said, still shaking. But he was grinning now.

~ Maybe an earthquake was what I needed. ~ he thought. ~maybe I've been still for too long. ~

He grinned at Arisa, eyes flashing in the moonlight as he moved toward her.

~Maybe I just need her. ~







Owari (end)

Authors note: that's it. I have another chapter in mind. What do you think, should I write it?